Obama to push energy agenda in Nevada, Colorado
Voice of America
U.S. President Barack Obama visits the gambling hub of Las Vegas, Nevada, and an Air Force base in the Rocky Mountain state of Colorado Thursday to push his new energy agenda in two states important to the 2012 presidential election. Obama is expected to talk about energy reform at both stops, drawing attention to proposals for clean energy use and greater production of domestic oil and gas. His comments follow criticism by Republicans earlier this week on the suspension of plans to build a cross-country oil pipeline from Canada to Texas. Both Nevada and Colorado are scheduled to hold their Republican presidential caucuses within the next two weeks.
Energy Recovery Inc. granted record-setting number of new patents
Market Watch
Energy Recovery Inc, a leader in the design and development of energy recovery devices and pumps for desalination and other industrial processes, today announced that it was granted four new patents from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in 2011, the most approved in any one year in the Company's history. All of the patents were related to Energy Recovery Inc's (ERI) game changing PX(TM) Pressure Exchanger technology, including its application into osmotic power production.
Constellation Energy awarded electricity supply, renewable energy contracts for federal agencies in New England, New York, Pennsylvania
Market Watch
Constellation Energy has been awarded three new General Services Administration (GSA) electricity supply and renewable energy contracts in five states. The additional contracts expand Constellation's federal supply to 2.7 million megawatt hours of electricity per year, serve almost every region of the country eligible for competitive supply, and build upon existing contracts that include the U.S. Capitol, Federal Reserve and Smithsonian Institution. The new contracts cover agencies in New York (including the United Nations building), Connecticut, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Pennsylvania.
FirstEnergy, citing impact of environmental regulations, will retire six coal-fired power plants
The Sacramento Bee
FirstEnergy Corp. announced today that its generation subsidiaries will retire six older coal-fired power plants located in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland by September 1, 2012. The decision to close the plants is based on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS), which were recently finalized, and other environmental regulations. The total capacity of the competitive plants that will be retired is 2,689 megawatts (MW). Recently, these plants served mostly as peaking or intermediate facilities, generating, on average, approximately 10 percent of the electricity produced by the company over the past three years.
Chesapeake Bay, Ala. coast among environmental group’s most endangered places in the Southeast
The Washington Post
Pollution, coal mining and natural gas exploration have put the Chesapeake Bay, North Carolina’s Piedmont and the mountains of Tennessee and Virginia on an environmental group’s list of most endangered places in the Southeast. The Southern Environmental Law Center released its fourth annual “Top 10 Endangered Places” on Thursday. Among the other entries and the threats are the Alabama coast, jeopardized by oil exploration; South Carolina’s Savannah River, by a shipping channel; and Tennessee’s Chilhowee Mountain, by a four-lane highway.
New U.S. forest rules may ease lumber, environmental conflicts
Bloomberg
New rules for managing the nation’s national forests will require the best available science to balance recreation and conservation interests with those of loggers and miners, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said. The plan, unveiled today, recognize that the 193 million acres in the U.S. forest system are used for a variety of purposes, Vilsack said in a statement in an e-mailed statement. The proposal will be published in the Federal Register on Feb. 3 and may take affect later this year.
President's infrastructure proposal needs concrete funding
PR Newswire
"As users of America's highways, ATA was heartened to hear President Obama once again highlight the need to do something – anything – about our crumbling infrastructure," Graves said. "However, it was with little surprise that the president once again failed to commit to putting real, concrete sources of funding behind that rhetoric. "Right now, the country doesn't need more empty promises and rhetoric about the importance of repairing roads and bridges as a way to put Americans back to work. What the country needs is money – money from real sources, not promises of private investment or redirected savings," Graves said.
Obama call to use war savings on roads may fail in congress
Bloomberg
President Barack Obama’s call to rebuild U.S. infrastructure with money saved by bringing troops home may not resolve Congress’s struggles to set aside more money for roads and bridges, two analysts said. “I’m not entirely convinced that reallocation of war funds will necessarily pick up enough momentum to gain traction in Congress,” Patrick Hughes, an analyst with Washington-based research firm Height Analytics, said in a telephone interview yesterday after Obama’s State of the Union address.
NY governor’s infrastructure plan hailed, questioned
The Wall Street Journal
The numbers are big: $15 billion overall for improving New York state's infrastructure, including $5 billion-plus for a new Tappan Zee Bridge to be built alongside the existing span linking New York City's northern suburbs. The figures included in Gov. Andrew Cuomo's $132.5 billion budget proposal are cheered by the heavy construction companies that will build the highways, bridges and other major infrastructure and that employ tens of thousands of workers. But some wonder where the funding will come from in a state that closed a $10 billion deficit in its last budget and has to eliminate a $2 billion gap in the spending plan released by Cuomo earlier this month.
San Francisco receives 2012 Sustainable Transport Award from the Institute for Transportation and Developmental Policy
California News Wire
Mayor Edwin Lee on Wednesday announced that San Francisco received the 2012 Sustainable Transport Award from the Institute for Transportation and Developmental Policy, for the City’s innovative parking management system and cycling and public space improvements. SFMTA Director Ed Reiskin accepted the award during the Transportation Research Board’s annual meeting in Washington D.C. “San Francisco is taking on problems all cities face, such as congestion and the need for clean transportation and open space, and finding innovative solutions that are being modeled throughout the country,” said Mayor Lee.
Why Jerry Brown is standing firm on shaky California high-speed rail plan
The Christian Science Monitor
A new report by the state auditor concludes that California’s proposed $98.5 billion bullet train is “increasingly risky” and has inadequate oversight, adding to a growing pile of formal assessments that raise major concerns about the project. Three weeks ago, an independent panel required by law to review the plans said the bullet train poses “an immense financial risk.” And in November, California's independent Legislative Analyst’s Office said parts of the plan don’t comply with the 2008 ballot measure that authorized state funding for the project.
LaHood: still our goal to connect 80 percent of Americans to high-speed rail by 2036
Transportation Nation
The U.S. Transportation Secretary, Ray LaHood, still wants to connect 80 percent of Americans to high speed rail by 2036. That’s the goal that President Barack Obama laid out in last year’s state of the union. But since then, the governors of Florida and Ohio followed Wisconsin’s governor in halting their states’ projects, and congress made no new allocations of high speed rail funds going forward. The President made no reference to high speed rail in his 2012 State of the Union address.
Water pollution bill clears another committee, ready for House floor
Miami Herald
A proposal environmentalists say would weaken the state’s water pollution rules was approved by a House panel on January 25. The bill’s next stop is the House floor. HB 7051 would allow Florida to override rigid federal water standards on the levels of nitrogen and phosphorous, known as nutrients. The proposed state standards would provide a more flexible “threshold,” which environmentalists say is unenforceable. At issue is pollution from fertilizer, manure and sewage that make their way into the water, particularly during rainy season.
American Water accepting grant applications
Penn Live.com
American Water Works Co. Inc. on Tuesday said applications are now being accepted by its participating state subsidiaries for the company's 2012 Environmental Grant Program awards. The grant awards will be available in American Water service areas in 10 states including Pennsylvania. To qualify, proposed projects must address a source water or watershed protection need in the community, be completed between May 1 and Nov. 30, be a new or innovative program for the community, or serve as a significant expansion to an existing program, be carried out by a formal or informal partnership between two or more organizations, provide evidence of sustainability, and be located within one of American Water's service areas.
Stormwater regulations and GARC
American Infrastructure magazine
Since the implementation of the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Phase II regulations, which were published Dec. 8, 1999, the management of stormwater has become an issue construction professionals must deal with on an almost daily basis. With the implementation of such an initiative, there comes a diverse array of ways of dealing with this issue. The Stormwater Equipment Manufacturers Association (SWEMA) was established to work as an industry organization in setting forth protocols for the effective operation of storm water management systems to the long-term benefit of all stakeholders in the drive for clean water.
